There is a second, parallel development of the European Union which has been underway at the same time, namely the enlargement of the EU to include new member states. Follow the links here to read about the membership debate in different European countries.

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“The European Union was not created in the form it takes now. It has developed by stages, through a series of treaties agreed unanimously and ratified by its member states”.

The Single European Act and Maastrict, it was dubious and confusing to know what creature it was, but the Lisbon Treaty or was it the EU constitution required a referendum from every member state to ratify them, because of the significant loss of sovereignty if we signed. It was clear from the start that when France, Ireland and the Dutch rejected the constitution, this would never get off the ground, if referendums or more to the point the plebian masses decided. So a name change and lo and behold it’s now a treaty and someone decides not much sovereignty lost there! Referendums denied.
This is exactly the insidious nature of this Union and has been since conception, taking a tranche here and a slice there, bit by bit, a few small crumbs at a time, until what was once a pile of bones in skeleton form, has had flesh and sinew added to build a beast of such menace, it would be best to strike it down now.
Each tiny particle taken in sovereignty, on its own is insufficient to alert the necessary brakes to further loss, so it continues. The EU has had 40 years in the UK to wrap its tentacles around just about every sphere of power, policy and authority, and adopted all the trappings of a Nation State in itself, to start calling itself a country.
It was ratified under increased objections from all people of all walks of life, but still they signed it anyway, without any subsequent referendums. Politically it finished Gordon Brown and David Miliband and it stuck a knife into the very back of our Constitution.
Years ago people used to be hung, drawn and quartered, for doing less, so it’s no coincidence that Tony Blair repealed the death sentence for treason, in 1998 to save his own neck.